Glass
by MarqueeMoonGirl
Summary: Noodle finds an injured bird, and hesitantly asks for help from the only one in Kong: Murdoc. Phase One. ONESHOT


_Glass_

_By MarqueeMoonGirl_

_---_

Noodle heard a quiet thud. The ten-year old girl had been in her room, drawing a doodle in a sketchbook 2D had gotten for her several weeks ago. She looked up at the window, where the noise had come from. The small, delicate leg of a bird could be seen at the very bottom of the window frame.

Opening the window, the Japanese girl stuck her head outside, being careful not to let the antennas of her radio helmet get caught in the window again. She gasped.

A small bird was on its back on the windowsill, fluttering its wings violently, but not being able to achieve lift. The breast feathers were a vibrant yellow, while the rest of the bird was a milky grey. One of the bird's wings appeared broken.

Carefully, she lifted the bird into her hands. The bird responded by flapping even more fiercely. It succeeded in wriggling itself out of the Asian Axe Princess's hands, then dropped like a stone to the floor of Noodle's room.

Noodle gasped again. "_Please don't do that!_" She cried in Japanese, picking up the bird again.

Ignoring Noodle's plea, the bird flapped out of Noodle hands yet again, and ended up on the wooden floor once more.

Clutching the bird to her chest so it couldn't get away, the girl ran to the kitchen. "2D-kun! Russel-san!" She cried. "Help!"

Silence. The kitchen was empty, the remains of last night's dinner still out on the table. The pasta Russel'd cooked had congealed into one solid mass of noodles and alfrado sauce. Noodle sniffled, the injured bird still fidgeting against her chest. '_Where are they?_"

Her ears pricked up as she heard the footsteps of someone approaching the kitchen. Maybe it would be 2D! He was always good with animals. Maybe he would know what to do with the bird.

"Hell, what's with all the fuckin' noise?" The rough voice of the bassist cried, kicking the door open to the kitchen. Unshaven, groggy, and dressed only in a ripped pair of jeans, Murdoc looked absolutely demonic. "It sounds like a fuckin' football match!"

Noodle's shoulders sagged. Even to her, Murdoc's setting-cats-on-fire fetish was well-known. But he seemed to be the only adult at Kong right now. Maybe he would surprise her. Noodle wasn't counting on it, though. What she'd seen of the bassist over the last few months made her think her wouldn't lift a finger to help his own mother, let alone a poor liitle bird.

But just maybe...

Meekly, she held the injured bird out to the bassist. "H-help." She said timidly. It was one of the few English words she knew.

Murdoc eyed the feathery ball in the young girl's hands disdainfully. "Whatcha got there?"

"_A-a bird._" She said, lapsing back into Japanese. "_It flew into a window. I think it's injured, Murdoc-san!_"

Murdoc looked lost. "Eh?"

Noodle pointed to the kitchen's window. "Splat." She added, hoping that would clear things up. "Help, Murdoc-san?"

Murdoc bent down. "So it flew into the window." He said quietly.

Noodle tilted her head, not understanding a word the bassist had said. She had managed to figure out what he'd asked before by the way he'd said it, but now she was clueless. The language barrier was a problem for all of them.

Murdoc sighed, then took the bird into his hands. "Let's see here." He muttered. Gently, he turned the twitching bird over, his rough fingers delicately feeling the bird's wing. "Broken. It's definately broken. At least the beak's all right."

Noodle couldn't believe her eyes. Was he actually being nice to the poor bird? He wasn't about to set it on fire? "Murdoc-san?"

"What?"

"_You…will not harm the bird, will you?" _She asked, then mentally chastised herself. How could she expect Murdoc to respond if he didn't know Japanese?

Amazingly, Murdoc understood what she'd said well enough to shake his head, or maybe he'd just guessed. "No, Noodle. I won't hurt him."

Her jaw dropped. "_Really?" _

"Yeah. He just busted a wing, is all. I know a lady we can take him to and he'll be just fine."

Noodle looked up the bassist with large green eyes. "O…okay?"

Murdoc nodded.

Grinning from ear to ear, Noodle threw her arms around the bassist's neck. "_Thank you_, _Murdoc-san_!"

Smirking, he pushed the tiny Japanese girl away. "You're crowding your bloody bird, girl."

---

_1971_

_Stoke-On-Trent, U.K_

The five-year old boy held the injured bird out to his older brother. "Look, Hannibal! It flew into the window! What do we do?"

Frowning, the large nine-year old looked at the bird and yanked it out of his brother's hands. "Gimme that!" The small bird, a grey wren with a broken wing and a broken leg, cheeped weakly as the older boy tossed it up and down roughly.

"No! Give it back!" The younger boy yelled, reaching for the bird. "He's hurt!"

A sadistic grin on his face, Hannibal held the bird upside down, just out of Murdoc's reach. "So ya want yer little bird back, do ya?"

He nodded.

"Fine!" Hannibal hurled the bird at his younger brother.

By the time it reached Murdoc's hands, the little wren was dead.

Hannibal walked back to the family house, laughing as his little brother held the dead bird. A small stream of blood trickled down from the bird's head, staining the feathers and the ends of Murdoc's fingers red. Kneeling down on the soft ground, Murdoc dug a small grave for the wren with his bare hands. After placing the dead wren in the hole and covering it back up again with dirt, the young boy looked up and glared at his brother, both eyes burning with a cold fury a child his age should never feel.

"Asshole." He growled.

END

_Slight editing done 11/12/06_


End file.
